Grant: Developing and testing group annotation for Slice

Since the launch of the Slice image bank in October 2013, we’ve collected feedback from academics and students to design new features that make interacting with images easier and more conducive to running different class styles.

About the Project

In 2015, sponsored by a UNSW Learning and Teaching Innovation Grant, the BEST Network team is developing new functionality to enable group annotation on Slice. This enhancement aims to facilitate student-student and student-teacher collaboration directly within Slice, removing the need to rely on a Learning Management System for sharing resources.

In Semester 1 2014, Slice was used in the Rational Use of Investigation course at UNSW, where students annotated histopathological images and shared their work via Moodle. This allowed collaboration and provided academics with real-time feedback on student understanding.

New Features

The current Slice tool allows individual annotations (pins or polygons) but lacks interactive collaboration. The new functionality will enable:

• Real-time group annotation on images
• Immediate in-class feedback for students and teachers
• Creation of a ‘heat map’ of student responses
• Options to keep students anonymous or associate annotations with users
• Visibility controls for student responses (public or private)
• Instant identification of student misconceptions for in-class correction

How to Participate

The project runs through the end of 2015, with ongoing testing and guideline development. The new collaborative tool is available for trial at BEST Network partner institutions. To arrange access for you and your students, email s.dowdell@best.edu.au.